Understanding Achievement & IQ Testing in School
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Sometimes we encourage administering achievement and intelligence tests to find out what’s going on with children who struggle in the classroom. To understand these tests, here’s a simple definition of what IQ and achievement tests show:
INTELLIGENCE (IQ) Tests measure cognitive mental skills and basic processing ability.
ACHIEVEMENT Tests determine how well a student is doing in academic subjects like arithmetic and social studies. An achievement test measures stored knowledge.
Achievement and IQ tests measure two different things — everyone agrees on that.
But, problems can occur with assumptions about the test results, how the results are interpreted, and how the results are applied to individual students. For a child to receive help that is both positive and permanent, the test outcomes must be properly understood.
From Professional Learning Board’s online continuing education course for teachers: Cognitive Skills – Understanding Learning Challenges
